1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a floating type robot that supplies and collects information subjectively (in an autonomous fashion).
2. Description of the Related Art
A related floating type robot will be described with reference to the drawing. FIG. 3 shows a structure of a floating robot disclosed, for instance, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 8-314401.
In FIG. 3, reference numeral 30 designates a floating robot in the form of an airship, and reference numeral 31 designates an airship balloon. This airship balloon 31 is provided at its side faces with transparent screens 32, and at its lower part with a transparent window 33. Two mirrors 34 are also installed inside the airship balloon 31 by wires 35.
In the drawing, a base 36 is in the form of a gondola, which is mounted to the airship balloon 31 by the wires 35. In this gondola-shaped base 36, two projectors 37 and speakers 38 are installed.
Next, the operation of the conventional floating type robot will be described with reference to the drawing. Projected light emitted from projectors 37 passes through the transparent window 33, and is reflected by the mirrors 34 to the right and left to form images on the transparent screens 32.
This airship balloon 31 as a whole is suspended by the wires 35 from an actual airship or a ceiling of an exhibition hall. A power supply cable and signal lines are incorporated into these wires 35 for use by the projectors 37 and the speakers 38.
Heat generated from the projectors 37, etc. is discharged outside from the base 36 by natural convection or forced ventilation. The speakers 38 are activated on demand to output audio synchronous with the above-mentioned images.
This airship balloon 31 is useful for the user since the airship balloon 31 can be set in the exhibition hall to display the state of the exhibition and the commercial messages using large display screens 32. In particular, floating the airship balloon 31 in 9 exhibition hall, 9 football stadium, or baseball stadium will further excite the event.
However, the related floating type robot as mentioned above can hardly recognize ambient information, and therefore can not select an object to which the information is to be supplied, and receive an input of the information from the object. Consequently, there arises a problem in that the robot merely supplies the information to many and unspecified objects in a one-way manner.
For the same reason, there arises a problem in that the robot can not be used as a monitoring device.
Further, even though a bidirectional information supply may be possible, the absence of moving means in the robot requires another means for moving the user to the robot, and thus there is the problem that the efficiency of use can not be increased. Since the information capable of being captured is limited, there is the problem that the robot is not suitable for use as the monitoring device.